Flagship Ventures Commences Its Sixth VentureLabs™ Fellowship Program Focused On Entrepreneurial Innovation

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 5, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Flagship Ventures, a leading venture capital and venture creation firm focused on healthcare and sustainability, announced the start of its sixth VentureLabs™ Fellowship Program, a unique opportunity for top graduate and post-graduate students to learn VentureLabs' approach to company conception, innovation and entrepreneuring.

This year VentureLabs welcomes eleven talented fellows who will work hand-in-hand with the VentureLabs team over a 12-week period to explore disruptive opportunities in life sciences. "Over the past six years we have continually attracted exceptional students who are interested in learning our company creation process and supporting our partners in developing new ventures," said Harry Wilcox, Chief Operating Officer and General Partner of Flagship Ventures. "This is an important program for VentureLabs, allowing us to expand our reach as we create innovative companies."

The fellows include engineers and scientists who are pursuing, or have recently completed advanced educational degrees, all with entrepreneurial and technical experience aimed at life sciences.  During the program, fellows will have a chance to work with Flagship's extensive ecosystem of executives, academics, and industry leaders. "Each year we focus on bringing together top young innovator-entrepreneurs and integrating them with our team to jointly explore disruptive innovations, providing them with a unique summer experience," said Dr. David Berry, Partner at Flagship Ventures and part of the VentureLabs founding team behind Joule Unlimited, Eleven Biotherapeutics, Seres Health, Pronutria and LS9.

Many former fellows have gone on to become members of the VentureLabs team, leaders at Flagship portfolio companies, and successful entrepreneurs. "The Fellowship program gave me exposure to starting life sciences companies built on breakthrough technologies," said Dr. Jordi Mata-Fink, VentureLabs Associate at Flagship Ventures. "I am pleased that my contributions during the program in 2012 and subsequently at Flagship have been integral to the launch of two exciting new companies."

This year the Fellowship program saw a record number of applicants from universities around the world.  The fellows represent leading graduate programs at Harvard, MIT, Stanford and Princeton, among others and possess varied technical and business backgrounds, skills and interests.

About Flagship VentureLabs

Flagship VentureLabs™ is the innovation foundry of Flagship Ventures.  VentureLabs has been creating innovative, game-changing companies since its founding in 2000.  It is the first institution dedicated to entrepreneurial innovation, where the acts of technology invention and entrepreneuring are performed in concert by a team of world-class innovators and professional entrepreneurs.  The VentureLabs team innovates, invents, iterates, founds and builds startups using a unique, systematic approach that results in the creation of best-in-class new ventures. To date, 27 life science and technology startups have been created within VentureLabs, including recently launched Seres Health, Pronutria and Moderna Therapeutics. For more information, please visit www.flagshipventures.com/venturelabs.

About Flagship Ventures

Realizing entrepreneurial innovation is the mission of Flagship Ventures. The firm operates through two synergistic units: VentureLabs™ which invents and launches transformative companies, and Venture Capital, which finances and develops innovative, early-stage companies. Founded in 2000, and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Flagship Ventures manages over $900 million in capital. The Flagship team is active in three principal business sectors: therapeutics, health technologies and sustainability. Flagship's portfolio ventures include: Accuri Cytometers (acquired by Becton Dickinson), Adnexus (acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb), Acceleron (NASDAQ: XLRN), Agios (NASDAQ: AGIO), BIND Therapeutics (NASDAQ: BIND), Concert Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CNCE), Eleven Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ: EBIO), Hypnion (acquired by Eli Lilly), Morphotek (acquired by Eisai), Receptos (NASDAQ: RCPT) and Tetraphase (NASDAQ: TTPH). Additional notable portfolio companies include: Affinnova, Joule Unlimited, and Moderna Therapeutics. For more information, please visit www.flagshipventures.com.

Contact:

For Flagship Ventures: Emily Rossi
Ruder Finn
212.593.6431 
[email protected]

SOURCE Flagship Ventures